Repsol Honda Press Release: Marc Marquez Continues Recovery, Will Attend Austria GP As Visitor

By David Emmett | Wed, 10/08/2022 - 21:28

The Repsol Honda Team issued the following extended update on Marc Marquez' recovery process:

Training with Marquez and staying connected

Recovery continues to progress well for Marc Marquez as he increases his training and starts to plan for the future, keeping in constant contact with the Repsol Honda Team.

Ten weeks on from surgery, Repsol Honda Team rider Marc Marquez continues to make progress as his condition improves. After several weeks of rest and light physiotherapy, the #93’s routine is beginning to intensify again. Frequently in the gym, Marquez has worked to maintain his overall fitness during his recovery and has now begun to work on strengthening his right arm. Constantly working closely with his team of doctors, physios and advisors, the entire process is being carefully monitored and managed.

His current training regime focuses on running, swimming, and resistance training in the gym with elastics. Each week weight and resistance are slowly added to increase strength without putting too much demand on the body.

“Step by step I am feeling better, and the bone is healing in a good way, which is the best news of all. We are still in rehabilitation mode; I am working very hard on the cardio side to try and be ready. At the end of August, I have another medical check, from there we can make another step with the rehabilitation and really start pushing and building muscles. Some days are better than others, but this is all part of the journey. I’m optimistic, but I don’t want to say too much about timings until we have this check – it’s not the time to push too much. I have waited a long time for these kinds of feelings,” reflected Marquez.

“It has been a struggle, it’s not two days or two months I have been struggling, it’s two years,” he continued. “I won some races last year like this, but I was struggling a lot. In Jerez I realised something had to change. It was hard and is hard now mentally – not because I am not racing, but because you always have this doubt about the arm. I can’t have another operation. I am convinced this one will be good, but these thoughts are always there in the back of your mind.”

Marquez is not just paying attention to the development of his body, he remains deeply invested and involved with the development of the Honda RC213V. As Stefan Bradl continues to combine his testing duties with replacing the #93, Marquez has been in constant contact with the German to fully understand the current bike and its development.

“Honda is in a critical moment. I am speaking a lot with my team and trying to understand the 2022 bike, the situation and what is happening. This is why I will go to Austria, to speak to everyone and to meet with the HRC staff from Japan to work for the future. We are all working together, we win together, we lose together, and we will come back together. I’m speaking a lot with Stefan Bradl as well, us and Santi are working together and testing things – both know how I ride. I said in Mugello that I will be at home, but I want to stay connected. With the previous operation I disconnected too much, and I want to be involved so that when I come back, I will have everything fresh.”

Marquez will attend the next Grand Prix in Austria to reconnect with the Repsol Honda Team and begin to make a plan for the future.

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Comments

I've read a few comments here this week, the gist of which is "win now, before Marc gets fit and dominates again." 

Is that the general opinion here? I have my doubts, but I've never been a Marquez fan, so am biased. Age, thoughts of mortality, a new gen of riders to fight, an HRC machine that sucks, etc. Thoughts? Predictions?

Fun fact - Marc is still leading all Honda riders by 15pts. On current form we may not see anyone overtake his lead for another 4-5 rounds which by then he will be back and no doubt scoring points.

That's pretty insane.

That's a reasonable take for sure. But then there's the side where he's completely tapped in the head if not outright psychotic in his desire to destroy the competition. If he could win last year on this shitbox of a RCV and half a body, I'm quite optimistic that he will be at the pointy end in short order. It's a nice variable to have going into 2023 yeah? HRC is more of a question than Marc in my view, but who knows.

On the whole I don’t care too much who wins the title these days nor what stripe of bike they do it on. With the greatest of respect to all of them, I don’t think we are seeing any aliens at work this year. Many are extremely good most of the time but in each case there are caveats that set out the circumstances necessary for them to strut their stuff, without which they are no better than the rest of the field.

For the likes of Marquez and other GOAT candidates, there are different caveats: these describe the very few circumstances when they won’t be able to pull off a win. Broken legs and arms, starting last on the grid, dodgy eyesight, all that kind of stuff. Otherwise, even if they are on a dog of a bike, there is a good likelihood of them being at least top three.

My gut feeling is that Marquez is going to stage the mother of all comebacks and dominate for at least another 3 or 4 years. I don’t see anyone in the paddock who could consistently beat him. I can’t say that fills me with joy, but it is what it is.

I’ve thought this for awhile, but then I didn’t expect MM to be on the sidelines so much, either. My hope, as a fan of close racing, is that some of the newer talent will raise their game when forced with the relentlessness of MM on form. There are three Ducati riders that MIGHT rise to the occasion. We know the bike shouldn’t be a limiting factor for them. And maybe one potential transplant from SBK? 

If Toprak comes to MotoGP AND performs better than any ex-wsbk ever has, MM93 may be in trouble. I don’t think Toprak has any concept of giving way or the gap is too tight. But those are two big ‘ifs’, and even if the first comes true, history says Toprak would be doing exceptionally well to be a regular top 5. We’ve had some seriously good riders come across over the last 30-odd years but none have really been that successful.

Trouble is there are more decent Motogp riders out there than decent Motogp bikes and why would a team take a punt on Toprak who didn't exactly blow everyone away at the Yamaha test. His Manager's demands for factory ride may be unrealistic too. I would love to see him on Motogp bike - but as the years pass he will become less attractive to Motogp. Plus there is a conveyer belt of talent coming up from Moto2/3.

Much as I'd love to see the fairytale come true it seems very unlikely to happen. I think the top guys in WSBK are sometimes as talented as those in motogp, but need two or three years of practice on motogp machines to be able to fully reveal that potential. By which time they tend to be heading over the hill rather than still developing, so not really worth the investment.

I don't doubt Marc's incredible ability will be with him when he returns. However, Marc's inability to see the limits of what a bike can/can't do is both his greatest strength and weakness, one or two big crashes and that eyeball's going to be rolling loose again. I expect (hope) he's got another title in him, but Marc's racing on borrowed time, unless he's learned to stop finding the edge by taking running jumps over it.

….that MM brings with him on his return might lift others to a new competitive level or it might intimidate them. Hard to say how it will play out but I am looking forward to watching it.

...he returns to form! MGP is better with him, then without. The mental aspect, of all this, will be very interesting to watch. The problem is that he's on a Honda....the biggest pile of crap on the track! Aprilia is kicking the snot out of the vaunted engineers at HRC! I'm partly happy about that because their arrogance, over the last 40+ years, has almost been intolerable, but I believe Marc not being on track, and the piss poor performance of their POS bike might have humble them (I hope...David, any insight on that?)

After reading a few of the comments I just want to check we are all talking about the same guy. Are we talking about that rider who just had a fourth operation on his humerus where they rotated it 30 degrees. Which suggests that throughout 2021 he had an elbow and wrist which was 30 degrees out from its normal natural position. Maybe that was compensated for through the shoulder, 50/50 ? 15 degrees in the wrist and 15 degrees in the shoulder ? This rider being the one who, with a deformed right arm, won three races in 2021 ? That rider at Spielberg...Aragon ? The same now mortally aware rider who still with his misaligned humerus was experimenting with the art of drift from turn 4 to turn 10 at Mandalika and yet again amazed us with his human bouncing ball impression. Personally I do not buy the idea of Marc being a victim of his self or of Honda. I think he knows very well what he does and I suspect he deserves a lot of credit beyond simply being the rider. If he could do what he has been doing for the last two years with a wonky arm then I think he's very willing to do it some more and better now it's hopefully fixed. Old Marc ? No, he's older. That doesn't mean a lesser Marc, it may very well mean a better Marc, he's still in his 20's.